On 12 March 2012, Steven Novella, Director of General Neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, published a post about ASMR on his blog Neurologica. Regarding the question of whether ASMR is a real phenomeonon, Novella said "in this case, I don't think there is a definitive answer, but I am inclined to believe that it is. There are a number of people who seem to have independently experienced and described" it with "fairly specific details. In this way it's similar to migraine headaches – we know they exist as a syndrome primarily because many different people report the same constellation of symptoms and natural history." Novella tentatively posited the possibilities that ASMR might be either a type of pleasurable seizure, or another way to activate the "pleasure response". However, Novella drew attention to the lack of scientific investigation into ASMR, suggesting that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation technologies should be used to study the brains of people who experience ASMR in comparison to people who do not, as a way of beginning to seek scientific understanding and explanation of the phenomenon.[39][40]
(function(){"use strict";function u(e){return"function"==typeof e||"object"==typeof e&&null!==e}function s(e){return"function"==typeof e}function a(e){X=e}function l(e){G=e}function c(){return function(){r.nextTick(p)}}function f(){var e=0,n=new ne(p),t=document.createTextNode("");return n.observe(t,{characterData:!0}),function(){t.data=e=++e%2}}function d(){var e=new MessageChannel;return e.port1.onmessage=p,function(){e.port2.postMessage(0)}}function h(){return function(){setTimeout(p,1)}}function p(){for(var e=0;et.length)&&(n=t.length),n-=e.length;var r=t.indexOf(e,n);return-1!==r&&r===n}),String.prototype.startsWith||(String.prototype.startsWith=function(e,n){return n=n||0,this.substr(n,e.length)===e}),String.prototype.trim||(String.prototype.trim=function(){return this.replace(/^[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+|[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+$/g,"")}),String.prototype.includes||(String.prototype.includes=function(e,n){"use strict";return"number"!=typeof n&&(n=0),!(n+e.length>this.length)&&-1!==this.indexOf(e,n)})},"./shared/require-global.js":function(e,n,t){e.exports=t("./shared/require-shim.js")},"./shared/require-shim.js":function(e,n,t){var r=t("./shared/errors.js"),i=(this.window,!1),o=null,u=null,s=new Promise(function(e,n){o=e,u=n}),a=function(e){if(!a.hasModule(e)){var n=new Error('Cannot find module "'+e+'"');throw n.code="MODULE_NOT_FOUND",n}return t("./"+e+".js")};a.loadChunk=function(e){return s.then(function(){return"main"==e?t.e("main").then(function(e){t("./main.js")}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe):"dev"==e?Promise.all([t.e("main"),t.e("dev")]).then(function(e){t("./shared/dev.js")}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe):"internal"==e?Promise.all([t.e("main"),t.e("internal"),t.e("qtext2"),t.e("dev")]).then(function(e){t("./internal.js")}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe):"ads_manager"==e?Promise.all([t.e("main"),t.e("ads_manager")]).then(function(e){undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe):"publisher_dashboard"==e?t.e("publisher_dashboard").then(function(e){undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe):"content_widgets"==e?Promise.all([t.e("main"),t.e("content_widgets")]).then(function(e){t("./content_widgets.iframe.js")}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe):void 0})},a.whenReady=function(e,n){Promise.all(window.webpackChunks.map(function(e){return a.loadChunk(e)})).then(function(){n()})},a.installPageProperties=function(e,n){window.Q.settings=e,window.Q.gating=n,i=!0,o()},a.assertPagePropertiesInstalled=function(){i||(u(),r.logJsError("installPageProperties","The install page properties promise was rejected in require-shim."))},a.prefetchAll=function(){t("./settings.js");Promise.all([t.e("main"),t.e("qtext2")]).then(function(){}.bind(null,t))["catch"](t.oe)},a.hasModule=function(e){return!!window.NODE_JS||t.m.hasOwnProperty("./"+e+".js")},a.execAll=function(){var e=Object.keys(t.m);try{for(var n=0;n=c?n():document.fonts.load(l(o,'"'+o.family+'"'),s).then(function(n){1<=n.length?e():setTimeout(t,25)},function(){n()})}t()});var w=new Promise(function(e,n){a=setTimeout(n,c)});Promise.race([w,m]).then(function(){clearTimeout(a),e(o)},function(){n(o)})}else t(function(){function t(){var n;(n=-1!=y&&-1!=g||-1!=y&&-1!=v||-1!=g&&-1!=v)&&((n=y!=g&&y!=v&&g!=v)||(null===f&&(n=/AppleWebKit\/([0-9]+)(?:\.([0-9]+))/.exec(window.navigator.userAgent),f=!!n&&(536>parseInt(n[1],10)||536===parseInt(n[1],10)&&11>=parseInt(n[2],10))),n=f&&(y==b&&g==b&&v==b||y==x&&g==x&&v==x||y==j&&g==j&&v==j)),n=!n),n&&(null!==_.parentNode&&_.parentNode.removeChild(_),clearTimeout(a),e(o))}function d(){if((new Date).getTime()-h>=c)null!==_.parentNode&&_.parentNode.removeChild(_),n(o);else{var e=document.hidden;!0!==e&&void 0!==e||(y=p.a.offsetWidth,g=m.a.offsetWidth,v=w.a.offsetWidth,t()),a=setTimeout(d,50)}}var p=new r(s),m=new r(s),w=new r(s),y=-1,g=-1,v=-1,b=-1,x=-1,j=-1,_=document.createElement("div");_.dir="ltr",i(p,l(o,"sans-serif")),i(m,l(o,"serif")),i(w,l(o,"monospace")),_.appendChild(p.a),_.appendChild(m.a),_.appendChild(w.a),document.body.appendChild(_),b=p.a.offsetWidth,x=m.a.offsetWidth,j=w.a.offsetWidth,d(),u(p,function(e){y=e,t()}),i(p,l(o,'"'+o.family+'",sans-serif')),u(m,function(e){g=e,t()}),i(m,l(o,'"'+o.family+'",serif')),u(w,function(e){v=e,t()}),i(w,l(o,'"'+o.family+'",monospace'))})})},void 0!==e?e.exports=s:(window.FontFaceObserver=s,window.FontFaceObserver.prototype.load=s.prototype.load)}()},"./third_party/tracekit.js":function(e,n){/**
Coming onto this page, I was hoping for a few good videos to bring on the shivers, but unfortunately, Ol' Bob Ross was the only successful one. I did enjoy that fountain pen and the tea making video though. Made me kinda drowsy aha. I don't know about you, but my ultimate asmr triggers, are soft spoken role-plays, especially when the person has an accent. Videos of head massages are also fantastic whenever I want some tingles :) You should check some of them out.
Over the past few years, videos like this have exploded in popularity on the platform. Millions are tuning in to watch strangers whisper into their microphones, tap their fingernails, fold napkins, or roleplay as a comforting nurse—all to help viewers experience a tingling, relaxing feeling known as autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR. It may seem bizarre and uncomfortably intimate and maybe even a little creepy the first time you watch an ASMR video, but the creators behind these videos have a truly benevolent intent: to help their views relax, fall asleep, and find relief from the stress of their everyday lives.
I’m glad that it’s at least showing up for you occasionally. It certainly seems to affect people differently and it’s an incredibly strange, though wonderful, phenomenon. I don’t pretend to understand it fully myself, and haven’t done research on it other than to check if it’s harmful, which from what I’ve seen doesn’t seem to be an issue. My reactions seem to have gotten more intense lately, sometimes to the point of having to pause the video for a short while in order to calm it down a bit.
I have had ASMR for as long as I can remember, but had no idea it was actually a recognised thing! I only get mine from for example; someone looking through my makeup bag, or using something of mine, anything that is gentle and concentrated (if that makes sense) I watch ASMR videos which are makeup tutorials or spa role plays – they are amazing for relaxation and sleep.
I have never heard of ASMR or its triggers, but having just read the article – all I can say is THANK YOU! I have wondered for years why certain things like just silently “humming” the tune of song inside my head induces a full body reaction (goosebumps), or as the author mentioned, someone brushing my hair, or lightly running fingertips over my skin – my arms especially – induces goosebumps. It is such a pleasant soothing feeling but I never knew why. I’ve spent my adult life thinking I was “weird” but I guess I”m not. The soothing arm rubbing I’ve experienced since a child – I used to pay my younger siblings to rub my arms for me..= ). I will definitely read up more on this.
I have been experiencing ASMR right from my childhood on many occasions, notably when I get personal attention, for example when a tailor takes the measurements. I do experience ASMR during hair cuts but to a lesser degree. The intensity is more when I get my moustache trimmed, a final ritual of my hair cut. It might sound weird to you, but I am trying to explain iin detail so that you get a better understanding of ASMR for different people.
I can do it without triggers. I didn’t really know what it was until today. I guess I just assumed everyone could do it. I just relax my neck and shoulders, and take shallow breaths and then feel tingles all through my head and body. I’ve been doing it all day today. Especially when I think about someone taking care of me or thinking about me. Like I said I didn’t even know this was a thing until today, so maybe I’m way off lol.
It’s not like it even has to be that good, but if I get sudden understanding where I didn’t used to, it’s instant ASMR. For example, if I listen to a song for a long time in a foreign language, and later on read the lyrics while listening along, I start to understand what the singer is going for, and why they held certain notes longer etc, and that’s a trigger.

The content creators are almost exclusively women, and while a large number of them post captions in Russian, there are women from all around the world posting videos of themselves chewing and swallowing chalk. And it’s not a small genre. The #chalkeating tag on Instagram has over 71,000 posts to date, and similarly, the #chalkasmr tag has over 34,000 posts.

An article titled "An examination of the default mode network in individuals with autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)"[38] by Stephen D. Smith, Beverley Katherine Fredborg, and Jennifer Kornelsen, looked at the default mode network (DMN) in individuals with ASMR. The study, which used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), concluded that there were significant differences in the DMN of individuals who have ASMR as compared to a control group without ASMR.
I must admit that I had never heard of Bob Ross before I discovered ASMR, and chances are that if you live outside America this will be the case for you too. Technically speaking Bob Ross is simply provides a good combination of many of the other common triggers, but because of his widespread popularity as an ASMR trigger I thought he was worth mentioning on his own. The great thing about being triggered by Bob Ross is that you can buy full length DVDs so you can quickly and easily get some ASMR going from the comfort of your couch.

The increase in skin conductance “went against our initial predictions,” says Dr. Giulia Poerio, a research associate at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the paper. She says the seemingly contradictory combination of heart rate drop and increased biological excitement “could reflect the emotional complexity of ASMR.” Paradoxical emotional experiences are not unheard of — take nostalgia, the paper notes, which can conjure up feelings of happiness and sadness simultaneously.

If you don't like any of these, there are lots of other options. The top YouTube “ASMRtists,” like ASMR Darling and Gibi ASMR, have over a million subscribers and hundreds of videos each. You can also explore “unintentional ASMR:” content not created with tingles in mind, but that just so happens to promote them. (Painter Bob Ross has a cult ASMR following).

Anyway, I have no problem sleeping, ever. I usually have a problem getting to bed, because I fall asleep wherever I’m sitting. My big problem is being intimate. If I’m in the middle of business, and I start thinking about my girlfriend’s body touching parts of the right side of my body, I start getting severe tickles and I’ve tossed her to the side because it’s too much for me. It’s one of those things where you tell yourself not to think about it, but it makes you think about it more. My right knee is the worst part. Anyone comes near that knee, not even touching it – they could just sit next to me, and if their leg touches my knee occasionally – I get tickle fits.

I’ve always had this triggered by intense personal attention on either me or something I’ve done. In particular, having someone stare intently at something I’ve written or drawn on paper (or imagining/remembering that type of incident) triggers it very consistently. Intensely focused photography of myself or a body part (not sexual) also is very effective. I was recently watching a sporting event and noticing the camera tracking the athletes – just imagining how the athlete would feel with this non-stop camera attention was also a trigger. Dentists don’t really do it for me, but regular checkups with any sort of focused attention on any body part works. There’s something about the very concept of another person finding either me or my ideas/thoughts interesting enough to examine at length. A glance is just not enough. It’s kinda funny but this has triggered like a dozen times just while writing this comment out and thinking about these things!

A few weeks ago, Maria says, she was contacted by a young woman whose grandmother was in a hospice. The elderly woman was no longer very responsive, but when the granddaughter played Maria’s videos, “it made her grandmother happy and calmed her down,” Maria says, recalling the woman’s message. “She said, ‘This is so great, because we don’t know how else to help her.’ ”
A group of psychologists at the University of Sheffield published a paper earlier this year in the journal PLOS One that reported for the first time that people who report experiencing the sensation actually do appear to have a physiological response: their heart rates tend to slow down. The researchers recruited 112 individuals, half of who reported experiencing ASMR and the rest of whom reported not experiencing the sensation and monitored everyone’s heart rate while watching an ASMR video.
A: I’ve been watching ASMR for about eight years. I was a horrible sleeper and could never go to bed, so I was just always watching YouTube on my phone. I stumbled on one of the videos, and I literally never stopped watching. When I was a film major, I was always into YouTube; I loved the internet culture; I loved everything about ASMR. I was so familiar with the community and who was in it and the little nuances. I was like, “If I’m going to start a YouTube channel, I think I would do ASMR.” I didn’t think anyone would like what I had to offer, but I knew I wanted to take it seriously.

You feel quite literally, euphoric, but quite. A moment of deep reflection mixed with an even deeper empathic connection with the subject or sound, And as you grow up, your empahic abilities grow as well, you learn more about the world around you. You may have had a brutal upbringing, You may carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. But you see things differently, you may be gifted, no trauma at all in your life so far, touch wood. For me, it happens while practicing a shared love (graffiti/drawing, in my case) A shared activity (relationships), a menial task (work) or shared adventure (your life), there are so many triggers. I can be alone, an get light empathic feelings for others or even a different race (suffering somewhere in this world), who aren’t even there, I’ll never even meet them. Empathy doesn’t ask permission, it is permission! We are waaaay past that point now people! Spiritually, physically, mentally, we are connected.

Let’s clarify something right off the bat: medically, it is not recommended that you eat chalk. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, swallowing large quantities of chalk can cause abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, and also shortness of breath and coughing. Eating chalk should not kill you, because it’s not toxic, but it’s not safe.

While most girls her age earned their pocket money babysitting the neighbours’ kids, Kelly spent that summer in her bedroom filming 50 custom-made ASMR videos. She would receive daily email requests for bespoke videos, shoot the footage, receive the money over PayPal (ten minutes cost $50, whereas for $30 (about £23) you’d get a five-minute clip) and upload the video to her YouTube channel, Life with Mak.

Wow similar and different from me. I listened to ASMR every night for about 6 months when I felt tingles for the first time. It was for probably less than 2 seconds, then a month or two passes before it happens again. But it is happening more often but still randomly. Some weeks I do not get the feeling, other times it is multiple times a week. But every time it is for less than 3 seconds. I am questioning if it is just pins and needles but feels nice because the asmr is so soothing. But you are the first person I have found who had a “delayed” experience. My brain might just be making this up due to my repeated listening and intense research into the subject.

In addition to the effectiveness of specific auditory stimuli, many subjects report that ASMR is triggered by the receipt of tender personal attention, often comprising combined physical touch and vocal expression, such as when having their hair cut, nails painted, ears cleaned, or back massaged, whilst the service provider speaks quietly to the recipient. Furthermore, many of those who have experienced ASMR during these and other comparable encounters with a service provider report that watching an "ASMRtist" simulate the provision of such personal attention, acting directly to the camera as if the viewer were the recipient of a simulated service, is sufficient to trigger it.[5][16]